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North Carolina State's long journey to Syracuse started Friday and ended Saturday

North Carolina State basketball arrivesThe North Carolina State men's basketball team arrives at the Carrier Dome for a game against Syracuse on Feb. 15, 2014. The Wolfpack's flight was canceled Friday and the team didn't leave Raleigh, N.C., until 1:30 p.m. for the 7 p.m. game.

Syracuse, N.Y. — The North Carolina State men's basketball team started on its trip to Syracuse for Saturday's game against the No. 1-ranked Orange on Friday afternoon when the players boarded a bus for Raleigh-Durham International Airport around 3 p.m.

The team's chartered flight was scheduled to leave at 5 p.m., which would put the N.C. State traveling party on the ground in Syracuse before 7 p.m.

Almost 24 hours later, the N.C. State coaches and players would not arrive in Syracuse until just before 3 p.m. on Saturday afternoon. Delays involving the team's chartered plane forced the team to stay in Raleigh overnight and travel to Syracuse on Saturday.

The Syracuse-North Carolina State game at the Carrier Dome, which was scheduled to start at 3 p.m. on Saturday, was pushed back to 7 p.m.

N.C. State sports information director Josh Rattray said all the delays were because the team's plane could not get to Raleigh.

"It was 55 degrees in Raleigh (Friday),'' Rattray said. "It was fine. We just couldn't get our plane into Raleigh.''

After the team got to the Raleigh airport on Friday, the flight was delayed to 9:30 p.m.

"We went to dinner at a restaurant near the airport,'' Rattray said. "At dinner, we got word that there were more delays.''

North Carolina State coach Mark Gottfried got on his phone. So did other N.C. State athletic department personnel. Calls went back and forth between N.C. State, Syracuse University and Atlantic Coast Conference officials.

Around 10 p.m., the N.C. State players were taken back to campus. There was still some hope that the team would leave late Friday night.

The plane, which had been stranded in Illinois, had gone to Miami on a previously-scheduled trip. Air traffic had backed up on the East Coast, forcing the plane to wait in Miami.

When the plane finally landed in Raleigh around 2:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, N.C. State officials had long since decided to travel on Saturday.

But now, they had another problem. FAA regulations mandate that a crew must be on the ground for 10 hours before flying again. That meant the earliest the plane could leave was 12:30 p.m., unless another crew could be found.

"We couldn't find another plane or another crew,'' Rattray said. "We tried everything. We called our NHL team (the Carolina Hurricanes), but they didn't have a plane. Our coaches were calling people they knew with NBA teams. No one had a plane available. And there weren't enough seats to get everyone on a commercial flight.''

North Carolina State's traveling party eventually took off at 1 p.m. on Saturday, landing at Syracuse's Hancock International Airport around 2:45. The team went straight to the University Sheraton.

"It's been kind of normal since we got here,'' Rattray said. "We had the players rest, then we ate and they watched some video and went over the scouting report.''

The bus carrying the N.C. State coaches and players backed into the Dome's loading dock at 5:30; about the time most teams get to the Carrier Dome prior to a 7 p.m. game.